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Beta vulgaris, commonly known as beet is a flowering plant species in the family Chenopodiaceae. Several cultivars are valued around the world as edible root vegetables, fodder and sugar-producing sugar beet.[1]
Beta vulgaris is a herbaceous biennial or perennial plant with leafy stems growing to 1-2 m tall. The leaves are heart-shaped, 5-20 cm long on wild plants (often much larger in cultivated plants). The flowers are produced in dense spikes, each flower very small, 3-5 mm diameter, green or tinged reddish, with five petals; they are wind-pollinated. The fruit is a cluster of hard nutlets.
Three subspecies are recognised:
* Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima. Sea beet. North-West Europe. Plant smaller, to 80 cm tall; root not swollen.
* Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris. Southern Europe. Plant larger, to 2 m tall; with a rounded fleshy taproot. The ancestor of the cultivated beets (not subsp. maritima, as sometimes stated).
* Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla - see Chard
[Source : Wikipedia.org]
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